I am just two months away from a much anticipated painting trip to The Netherlands. Once upon a time I lived there, in my early twenties. I was a missionary for my church and found myself assigned to this beautiful little country. I embraced it wholeheartedly, learning Dutch and finding so much joy in the work I did there. I loved the people I met, the culture I joined in, the food, and the language. But perhaps one of the things I have missed most since coming home is the biking!

So, in May I am headed back to visit and to PAINT! I am trying to streamline my plein air set up so I can pack it all easily on a bike. I’ll be breaking the trip into two parts. First I will be traveling with my mom, my sister and two sister-in-laws. We will be in South Holland, visiting areas I lived as a missionary. I will paint when I can, but might not get to immerse myself in the painting until the second half of my trip when I will meet up with a group of other artists (some of my dearest art friends). We will be staying in North Holland and will be doing lots of day trips on bikes and by car to paint the seaside, the dunes, the canals, the old towns, and the beautiful polderland. So much to look forward to!

I have not typically incorporated much architecture into my landscape paintings, but I really want to be able to catch more of the personality of the Dutch countryside, including the buildings and windmills, etc… So, I am embarking on some intensive study to paint more buildings. I have set a goal for myself to try to paint two small studies each day of different sorts of buildings, churches, houses, etc… So far I can tell my attempts are quite immature, but I’m learning and I’m enjoying the process. Stay tuned for updates and possible improvement. My hope is that it will give me more confidence to include some of the iconic Dutch architecture in my paintings from this trip.

I woke up this morning knowing I would start writing this blog. I kept a blog many years ago, but if fell by the wayside over time. I am not intending this to be something to promote to the world, just a quiet corner to leave thoughts. If it happens to reach someone and make some sort of impact that’s wonderful, too.

The thoughts I was having this morning were along the lines of how much I consume on a daily basis. Material consumption, sure, but more the consumption of ideas and images. There is a lot of intake from the internet, from friends, from podcasts, and I’m sure from other sources, too. But most of it is disposable. I’m consuming things that I can easily discard at a moment’s notice. It doesn’t feel good.

My mind is already a place of disorganization and noise. I am always leaving things lying around in there, in case I need to grab it quickly. Over the course of several days I realize I’m having a hard time keeping track of responsibilities, managing priorities, and cutting through the clutter of my mind to grab hold of valuable focus energy. So, I need to go through each item and put it back away in its proper drawer. This helps me be able to see more clearly. I suppose this is how I prepare my mind to be a place where I can process all that I’ve consumed and taken in.

Lately, really over the past couple of years, I’ve felt an intense desire to limit my disposable intake. I want to replace it with feeding myself with ideas that I am allowing to percolate over time and that I am deliberately choosing to digest. I want to learn from books again. I want to go to museums, to galleries. I want to read from scripture. I want to listen to whole conversations and go deeper into discussions. I want to study the masters and create an environment where I give my mind less abrupt and scattered intake and more slow and deep discovery.

So, I am embarking on a bit of a revolution in the way I use my time. Giving more time to breathing in the beauty of the world and less time to scarfing up the disposable sound bites that are swirling all around me. I get to choose what I bring into my mind. My hope is that this will help my focus to be heightened, my endurance to be lengthened, and my perspective to be broadened. Also, I hope that my mind will feel lighter, calmer, less frenzied, and that I’ll be able to find my own thoughts in there more easily without having to sift through all the superfluous stuff thrown at me all the time.

Wish me luck!